Brought Up That Way
by GoldStarGrl
Summary: "Brought Up That Way"  A songfic about Burt Hummel and the son he loves more than anything. Set to Taylor Swift's "Brought Up That Way."


BUTW

"Brought Up That Way"  
>A songfic about Burt Hummel and the son he loves more than anything. Set to Taylor Swift's "Brought Up That Way."<p>

_Emily comes home from school,_  
><em>grabs onto her daddy's hand.<em>  
><em>He says "Baby girl what's wrong with you?"<em>  
><em>She says "Please, don't make me go back there again."<em>

Burt Hummel looked up from the television as the front door slammed shut. His son, twelve-year-old Kurt, was standing there, his back against it. His backpack was clutched to his chest. His hair was rumpled and his clothes were dirty.  
>"Hey buddy." Burt said, turning back to his TV show. "How was school?" Kurt was silent.<br>"Hello?" Burt turned around again. His heart fell when he saw Kurt's eyes were shiny with tears. He stood and ran over to him.  
>"Buddy, what's wrong? What happened?"<br>Kurt just shook his head, tears leaking down his cheeks.  
>"Please don't make me go back there." He whispered, his voice small and broken. Burt grabbed his son's thin shoulders.<br>"Kurt, What. Happened."  
>Kurt shook his head more feverently.<br>"K-Karofsky...and Noah...punched me in the s-stomach...twice... right outside the office. And n-no teachers said anything...I...I just want them to stop." His whispered, his voice cracking as he gave into his tears and started sobbing.  
>Burt clutched his son tightly, closing his eyes.<br>/Mandy, help me now./ He thought.

_She said "I wish there was some way to make 'em stop it"_  
><em>so he drives down to<em>  
><em>that principle's office and says...<em>

"Hey! You Principal Miller?" Burt yelled across the parking lot. It's late at night, and the thin man locks the front door to Lincoln Middle School behind him. Burt's so mad he's shaking.  
>"I am." He said apprehensively. Burt got right up in his face.<br>"We need to talk about my son. My poor, sweet son." He muttered in Miller's ear. Miller gulped. Burt spoke in quick, low voice.  
>"Listen up. I did not raise my son so he could be torn apart everyday. I will not sit here and watch you let these kids push him around. I will do anything to make my son happy. That includes knocking some heads together. So unless you get these kids to lay off him, I will come to your home and break each one of your fingers slowly and painfully. Is that clear?"<br>Principal Miller narrowed his eyes.  
>" You Hummels are violent and a danger to the community." He blurted out.<br>Burt let go of his shirt, pushing him back a little.  
>"No. Hummels just don't let anyone push them around. We aren't brought up that way."<p>

_"I didn't bring her up_  
><em>so they could cut her down<em>  
><em>I didn't bring her here<em>  
><em>so they could shut her out<em>  
><em>I live my whole damn life<em>  
><em>to see that little girl smile<em>  
><em>so why are tears, pouring down<em>  
><em>that sweet face?<em>  
><em>she wasn't brought up that way."<em>

. . .  
><em>Emily's home late again,<em>  
><em>he sees that boy drive away.<em>  
><em>Oh, but something different this time.<em>  
><em>She doesn't have too much to say.<em>

The roar of an engine in the driveway immediately calms Burt down. His sixteen-year-old son Kurt was on another date. With a boy. That Blaine. And they had been gone for two hours and forty-six minutes. Which was eleven minutes longer than last time.  
>Naturally, Burt was five seconds from calling the police.<br>Burt looked out the window to see Kurt pull his jacket from the car quickly and slam the door. The car pulled away so fast you would have thought the house was on fire. A few moments later, Burt heard a key scraping the lock of the front door. Kurt walked in, looking weary. Burt tried to look like he hadn't been standing by the door all night, hastily grabbing the newspaper of the coffee table.  
>"Hey, how was your date?" He asked, faux-nonchalantly, pretending to read a sports column. Kurt shrugged.<br>"It was fine, I guess." He said softly. He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm, um...I'm going to bed."  
>Burt raised an eyebrow. Some parental alarm deep in his brain was going off. He put down the newspaper, which he realized he'd been holding upside down.<br>"Hey...buddy...is everything OK?"  
>Kurt closed his eyes for a minute.<br>"Yeah...I'm..." Suddenly they opened, vividly blue and wet with tears. "Blaine...d-d-dumped me." He burst out. His voice was loud and uneven.

Burt's heart caught in his throat. He stood from the couch and rushed to Kurt's side, pulling him into a hug.

"It's OK, it's OK." He murmured. "What happened?"

_She said_  
><em>"He tried but there's just some things I won't do."<em>  
><em>and through the tears<em>  
><em>she said "I couldn't do that to you."<em>

"A-And I just couldn't get you out of my head, and all those t-things you told me a-about r-respect...and w-waiting...I C-couldn't do it daddy!"  
>Burt pulled his wailing son over to the couch, and looked straight into his eyes.<br>"Listen to me." He said.

_And he says..._  
><em>"I didn't bring you up<em>  
><em>so he could wear<em>  
><em>you down.<em>  
><em>Take that innocent heart<em>  
><em>and turn it inside out.<em>  
><em>I live my whole damn life<em>  
><em>to see my little girl's smile<em>  
><em>so don't let nobody take that away,<em>  
><em>you weren't brought up that way."<em>

"What have I always told you?" Burt said wrapping a blanket around Kurt's shaking body.  
>"Um..." Kurt wiped his nose. "You can always find an engine vacuum leak by shooting pipe smoke through the opening?"<br>Burt bit back a smile. "No, not that." He squeezed Kurt's hands. "Nobody. Pushes. The Hummels. Around. Look at me!" He said as Kurt started crying again. "Especially jackasses like that. They don't get to hurt you. You won't let them."  
>Kurt took a huge sniff.<br>"I know." He mumbled. "I

_The phone ring on a rainy night, _

_says "It's Officer Tate."_

_He said "Sir, there's been an accident,_  
><em>you better come down here right away."<em>

The loud ringing jolts Burt out of his hazy dream about Cheryl Diggs and an enormous shark. He groggily gropes around the night stand and picks up his buzzing cell phone.  
>"Hullo?" He mumbles sleepily. Carol is stirring next to him, sitting up and turning on the lamp next to the bed. The light illuminates her nervous face. A mother's worst fear is a call in the middle of the night.<br>"Is this Burt?" A gruff voice asks from the other end.  
>"Yup." Burt yawns. Carol's anxiety was apparently not catching.<br>The other voice takes a deep breath.  
>"Sir, this is Officer Tate. Your...an eighteen-year-old boy we believe to be your son... has had an accident."<br>Burt is suddenly wide awake, his blood turning to ice.  
>"Kurt?" He said so softly it was almost not audible. Carol lost all the blood in her face.<br>"We found his cell phone at the accident scene, this number was listed under Emergency Contacts as 'Burt/Dad'" Officer Tate explains. Burt barely hears a word of it.  
>"K-Kurt...I thought he got home from Rachel's hours ago." He squeaks, too scared to move. Carol's eyes widen and she grips Burt's hand.<br>Officer Tate gulps.  
>"You better get down to St. Andrew's right away. Kurt's...not doing so well."<br>Burt slams the phone down mechanically. He gets out of bed and pulls on the sweatshirt hanging from the bedpost. He can't breathe, can't think. The only word that comes to mind is _Kurt. _He falls to the ground, his head in his hands. Carol reaches to touch his shoulder. He jerks away.

"Get Finn." He chokes out to Carol.  
>"Now."<p>

_"A drunken driver missed an over pass,_  
><em>and Emily, she's fading fast."<em>

The car is silent.  
>The only light comes from Finn's cell phone, as he texts Rachel and Mercedes to tell them what's going on. His face is gaunt and terrified.<br>"I should have never let him go out. The road is all icy." Burt half-shouted, half-cried. Carol took his hand again.  
>"It was a drunk driver...Kurt couldn't have done anything..."<br>Burt jerked his hand away and looked icily at the Hudsons.  
>"God, I didn't bring him up<br>to watch them lay him down.  
>Nearly killed me the day<br>they put his momma in the ground.  
>Only thing that kept me alive,<br>was that little boy's smile."  
>He pulled into the hospital parking lot as tears ran down his cheeks.<br>"They just can't take that away."  
>Carol is crying now too. The lot is full of ambulances and stretchers. Most of the rooms in the hospital above them are dark. Suddenly, Burt can't make himself move. He can't see what might be in those dark rooms. He just can't.<br>"I won't be easy, taking him today." Finn says suddenly. Burt and Carol turn around startled, like they forgot he was there.  
>"W-what?" Burt croaked. Finn shrugged, wiping his shining eyes on his pajama sleeve and bowing his head.<br>"Nobody pushes the Hummels around, right?" He looks up at the Lima Hospital and grips the door handle. With a deep, shuddering breath, he opens the door.  
>"He wasn't brought up that way."<p>

. . .

The last thing Burt saw of Mandy Hummel were her eyes. They were brilliantly blue and wide. Just like her son's. He was there when she closed them for the last time. The moment their beauty was lost forever.  
>But now, standing in the ICU, he sees them again.<br>But they don't belong to Mandy.  
>They're Kurt's.<br>And they're opening.

_He stands over the hospital bed,_  
><em>Emily opens her eyes.<em>


End file.
